Vivid is a monochrome curtain made of naturally and synthetically dyed yarn. When the textiles are exposed to sunlight, the natural colors fade while the stable synthetic colors retain their hues, gently revealing an intricate pattern. The shifting color has the poetic power of tracing time and strengthens the emotional relationship people experience with their belongings: incorporating change and encouraging longevity.
Cross-border/international
Luxembourg
Germany
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It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Yes
ESF : European Social Fund
A prototype was realised with the WORTH partnership project.
No
Yes
2022-03-01
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Sarah Last name: Meyers Gender: Female Nationality: Luxembourg Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: 5, am Grendchen Town: Luxemburg Postal code: L-1655 Country: Luxembourg Direct Tel:+49 1577 1895247 E-mail:sarah.or.laura@gmail.com Website:http://meyersfuegmann.com
First name: Laura Last name: Fügmann Gender: Female Nationality: Germany Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Sonnenallee 176 Town: Berlin Postal code: 12059 Country: Germany Direct Tel:+49 176 96744887 E-mail:sarah.or.laura@gmail.com Website:http://meyersfuegmann.com
VIVID is a curtain that changes over time by the influence of sunlight.
Developed with an undogmatic technique that embraces both the natural and artificial, VIVID combines naturally and synthetically dyed yarns. As the curtain is exposed to sunlight, the naturally dyed colors fade while the stable synthetic colors retain their hues, gently revealing an intricate pattern.
The light-responsive technology speaks to the emotional relationships people develop with objects: incorporating change and encouraging longevity by turning time and memory into tangible elements of the design.
The VIVID curtain is a unique approach to textile design that aims to celebrate the beauty of natural colors and challenge traditional notions of color fastness. It is a plea for the dignity and liveliness of natural colors as they fade over time while advocating for a slow consumerism.
Natural Colorants
Longevity
Local Production & Value Chains
Slow Consumerism
Written by the sun
The VIVID curtain is manufactured 100% in the EU and during production we try to keep emissions through transportation at a minimum.
To produce the VIVID curtain we collect virgin wool from Luxembourg. Despite its value, European wool is usually sold under value, while wool for the local textile industry is imported from overseas. In the sense of proximity economy we want to help build a local value chain for this undervalued material and pay the shepherd about 10 times the regular price, to create incentives to sort and sell the local raw material for high-end uses instead of selling it unsorted as cheap isolation material to Asia. The use of this wool contributes to the goal of promoting sustainable and local sourcing, as well as reducing the environmental impact of transportation. VIVID provides a new outlet for this wool and gives it a value.
After we found out about the environmental harm caused by the textile industry, and industrial dyeing in particular, we started to research natural dyes. Natural pigments have a lower lightfastness than synthetic pigments, meaning they fade faster when exposed to UV light. People often see this as a negative quality, but we decided to use it as a feature in our design. The natural coloring process produces fewer toxins, which is beneficial for all microorganisms, not just humans.
The curtain addresses physical obsolescence. The ageing process is wanted and designed into the piece, stimulating people to value the piece over its entirety of its lifespan, it embraces subtle shifts in appearance.
Designed according to Bauhaus principles, the curtain meets highest quality and design standards and is designed to last.
The Jaquard woven textile has a soft fall and an exceptional touch. It is currently available in three colorways: dark blue, grass green and rose.
‚VIVID‘ is a design object that functions as a witness of time. Seeing it evolve creates a sense of attachment as both owner and object age, side-by-side. Since the process of fading takes time, the textile comes to life only after purchase, encouraging people to value an object’s entire lifespan.
Depending on where it is hung each curtain will become a unique painting of light.
The VIVID curtain shows how beautiful natural colors age and promotes them as a real alternative to synthetic dyes, opening markets for less durable colors that change over time. We want to bring about a step change in the industry and make natural dyes a relevant choice for designers, architects and manufacturers.
Meanwhile, we work on bringing VIVID to public spaces and giving it a broader audience. We envision our curtains in hotel lobbies, museum entrances and business halls. Working with these business clients to produce a striking, high-end, tailor-made product is a central part of bringing the curtain to the world and making it accessible to a broader audience.
The experience of the lifetime of different colorants reconnects with nature and promotes not standardized but ongoing individual processes. It shows that it's not bad to just let natural processes take their course.
Citizens and civil society have been involved in the project in several ways, from the sourcing of materials to the end product. Since the whole production is located in the European Union, we can guarantee social working standards. The project uses locally sourced materials, supporting local value chains and reducing emissions from transportation. The goal is to shape a circular industrial ecosystem and support long life cycle thinking.
In addition to sourcing locally, the VIVID curtain uses wool from Luxembourgish sheep, which are crucial for maintaining the landscape and promoting biodiversity. European wool is, despite its value, normally sold by farmers at a loss. The aim of this project is to turn this economically undesirable material into an attractive, high quality interior piece.
The VIVID curtain was designed with the aim of involving different stakeholders at various levels to create a sustainable textile. To achieve this goal, the project brought together and connected many small suppliers in order to create a local value chain.
We used wool from a Luxembourgish shepherd that is normally discarded or sold for a very low price to Asia.
The dyeing company that we worked with is located in Austria and is one of the few companies capable of dyeing on an industrial scale using natural materials. The company was instrumental in delivering high-quality dyes, sourcing all their plant materials from a 150 km radius around their factory. This helped in promoting local suppliers and preserving the heritage of natural dyes in the region.
The weaving mill, located in Bavaria, has extensive knowledge in interior textiles and is able to use its high-tech jacquard looms to create striking designs. Sustainability was a key factor for the mill and their belief in the project opened their minds to the possibilities of using wool and natural dyes, which they had not worked with before.
The involvement of local, regional and European stakeholders added significant value to the project. By collaborating, we were able to create a sustainable textile collection that not only addressed global challenges but also provided local solutions.
The VIVID curtain project is a perfect example of interdisciplinarity, bringing together various fields such as sustainable design, experimental design, critical design, farming, biodiversity, natural dyeing, high-end weaving, cultural debates on sustainability, and education.
The interaction between these fields created a cultural dialogue that questioned traditional notions of color fastness and evaluated important sustainability criteria such as energy and water usage as the use of renewable resources.
By embedding traces of making, creating new value chains and preserving specific knowledge and crafts, we forge new connections between production, design and consumption.The paths along which products travel, from farm to factory, from studio to shop, become tangible in the objects we design.
We position ourselves as a social business – part of a new wave of environmentally-aware doers and makers who care as much about people and the planet as we do about profit.
The curtain addresses different local and global issues like recourse chains, toxic colorants and overconsumption. It creates visibility over alternatives and opens options on how to start acting now.
The VIVID curtain helps to create a demand for naturally dyed pieces made from local wool, which will stimulate the market and broaden the research into these options.
It is highly innovative to work with the low lightfastness of natural pigments. We make use of what is considered a defect in the textile industry, and show that a naturally dyed industrially manufactured product can be of convincing quality.
We bring a naturally dyed product into an industrial scale to the consumer market. Our aim is not just an interesting design idea, but to bring the slow fashion debate to interior design by incorporating the aging process into the product.
By combining two dyeing techniques the curtain textile combines two different philosophies.
The project goes beyond a pretty effect, but addresses the production conditions in the textile industry and can be seen as a contribution for a non-toxic future in textile. Synthetic and particularly lightfast dyes are particularly harmful to the environment in production and are harming the health of workers in the factories.
Our approach is undogmatic in multiple ways:
We combine natural and synthetic material.
Our product is supposed to change after purchase! As experts for natural coloring we admire and celebrate the dignity and liveliness of natural pigments - while knowing that any natural dyestuff will have a poor color fastness. While normally change is not wanted in the textile industry we no longer see this as a shortcoming but take it as an inspiration and feature for our work.
We work with what is possible and improve from there: The curtain is a beginning: we still see options to improve the sustainability of our product by making it even more circular. Considering the post-consumer life cycle our next VIVID curtains will be a monomaterial. Using naturally and synthetically dyed wool will make it easier to recycle, whilst maintaining the light responsive effect. We are also looking into cooperating with the food and cosmetics industry to use plant waste to create the natural dyestuff used in our textiles.
In the future we want to position ourselves as leading innovators in the field and open markets for less durable colors in general, since often recycled fibers also have a lower lightfastness.
As morally driven designers we ask ourselves: What can we add to the world? What are really sustainable processes or materials and what makes a user keep an object longer, maybe even forever?
According to Bauhaus principles, social awareness and economics should be integrated into design, and this includes ensuring socially fair production. European products should be socially innovative in use, encouraging people to value an object’s entire lifespan.
With environmental and social causes high on the political agenda, there is a growing consumer demand for products with principles. All objects of our daily lives should consider the geographical origins of materials, the social value of production processes and the environmental impact of a products’ life cycle.
There is big potential in transforming rustic wool, from meat or milk sheep, which is not considered of interest as textile material, into an industrially viable and commercially desirable product by adding value through high-impact design, creativity and high-quality processes. A previously unused raw material is being developed on an industrial scale, it’s perfect for innovative circular products, which convey in its realization all the principles of the short production chain approach.
The textile industry is one of the most polluting in the world. With natural dyeing we want to reshape it completely and establish our non-toxic process as a real alternative. Our unique curtain shows how rich and complex natural dyes can be – proving the true power of plants. Step by step, we can change the industry from inside. The curtain is itself a statement, making people think about polluting industries and the less damaging alternatives.
Sustainable Production: The use of natural dyes reduces the environmental impact of the textile industry and supports the development of more sustainable production practices. This has a positive impact on the health of the planet, reducing the amount of waste and pollution produced by the textile industry.
Local Job Creation: By prioritizing the use of locally sourced materials and traditional European weaving techniques, the project supports local economies and creates job opportunities in the European textile industry. This helps to preserve the heritage and traditional skills of the European textile industry, while also providing employment opportunities in the field.
Encouraging Responsible Consumption: The VIVID curtain challenges the traditional notion of color fastness, encouraging people to value the longevity and beauty of natural colors over the short-term appeal of synthetic dyes. This promotes responsible consumption, encouraging people to choose products that are more sustainable and have a longer lifespan.
